Monica Poole
This is Monica Poole's 'Piddock Architecture' wood engraving from 1975, one of the prints that feature in A Printmaker's Journey, the exhibition I've curated for Hampshire Cultural Trust which reopened at its final venue in Lymington last week.
When I began wood engraving again in earnest a few years after leaving college, the clarity and attention to detail in Monica Poole’s depiction of natural forms was a huge inspiration. I never looked at a piece of seaweed or pebble in the same way again and discovered the fascination of studying nature in close detail.
A Printmaker's Journey features over 60 works from over 20 artists including Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Jonny Hannah, Gertrude Hermes, Mark Hearld, Enid Marx, Paul Morrison, Eric Ravilious, Rob Ryan, Graham Sutherland and Emily Sutton.
Until 25th November 2017 at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 9BH Find out more
Image courtesy of Folkestone Art Trust
Monica Poole
This is Monica Poole's 'Piddock Architecture' wood engraving from 1975, one of the prints that feature in A Printmaker's Journey, the exhibition I've curated for Hampshire Cultural Trust which reopened at its final venue in Lymington last week.
When I began wood engraving again in earnest a few years after leaving college, the clarity and attention to detail in Monica Poole’s depiction of natural forms was a huge inspiration. I never looked at a piece of seaweed or pebble in the same way again and discovered the fascination of studying nature in close detail.
A Printmaker's Journey features over 60 works from over 20 artists including Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Jonny Hannah, Gertrude Hermes, Mark Hearld, Enid Marx, Paul Morrison, Eric Ravilious, Rob Ryan, Graham Sutherland and Emily Sutton.
Until 25th November at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lyminton, Hampshire SO41 9BH Find out more
Image courtesy of Folkestone Art Trust
Workshops for December
Later this year I'll be exhibiting at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh as part of A Fine Line, alongside Lizzie Farey (who I have curated the exhibition with), Frances Priest and Bronwen Sleigh. I'll be sharing further information about the event over the coming weeks.
As part of the exhibition there will be two related workshops.
On Saturday 2nd December 2017 between 10.00-16.00 I'll be hosting a one-day wood engraving workshop.
I'll start the day by sharing examples of the work of fellow wood engravers. Then we'll experiment with tools on a practice block before engraving and printing your own woodblock. You are welcome to bring sketches/reference material with you for inspiration. It’s important to note that wood engraving is a slow and precise process and some participants may not leave with a completely finished print but will learn all stages of the process. This course is suitable for adults (aged 18+) and you will need to have some drawing skills to benefit fully from this workshop.
This one-day workshop costs £75.00 and is limited to 10 participants. If you'd like to book a place, please contact the City Art Centre reception on 0131 529 3993.
I'd also recommend a workshop that's being hosted by my good friend Lizzie Farey on Saturday 16th December 2017 from 10.30-16.00. This class will teach you how to make willow Christmas trees, wreaths and stars for the festive season. The cost for the workshop is also £75.00 and this will need to be booked on through the City Art Centre on 0131 529 3993.
If you'd like to see more of Lizzie's work, she will be exhibiting at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh from 6th-30th September 2017. Find out more
Working on a wood engraving
Lizzie Farey in her studio - photo courtesy of The Scottish Gallery
Lizzie Farey 'Almost Spring' woven willow - photo by Shannon Tofts
Sutton & Hearld at Home
Artists Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld will soon open their doors again as part of the 2017 York Open Studios event.
Running over the last two weekends of April, Emily will exhibit a selection of new paintings, drawings and prints while Mark has created a series of new mixed-media collages, limited edition prints, hand-decorated slipcast cockerels and painted platters.
Emily Sutton and Mark Hearld's Open Studios, 104 The Mount, York YO24 1AR on 21st (6-9pm), 22nd (10am-6pm) and 23rd (11am-5pm) April 2017 and again on 29th (10am-6pm) and 30th (11am-5pm) April 2017.
You might also like to view Mark and Emily's fabrics and wallpapers for St Jude's.
Mark Hearld 'Wood Pigeon' mixed-media collage, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Allotment with Cardoons' watercolour, 2017
Mark Hearld 'Crows' mixed-media collage, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Swans on the Seine' watercolour, 2017
Mark Hearld 'Cockerel' slipcast and hand-decorated, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Glass House, Jardin des Plantes' watercolour, 2017
Mark Hearld 'Mandarin Duck' mixed-media collage, 2017
Emily Sutton 'Pont Neuf Finches' watercolour, 2017
A Printmaker’s Journey
I'm delighted to share news of a forthcoming exhibition that I have curated for Hampshire Cultural Trust, A Printmaker's Journey, which opens in Winchester on Saturday 11th March and then tours Hampshire until early November 2017.
A Printmaker's Journey includes work selected from a wide range of disciplines and periods which will lead the visitor through the inspirations and affinities which have influenced my journey as a printmaker and designer. Paintings, textiles, prints, posters and ceramics by artists and designers including Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Mark Hearld, Alan Reynolds, Emily Sutton and Paul Morrison will be displayed alongside work from various stages of my career.
I'll be at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre on and off throughout the opening day, Saturday 11th March. I hope that you might be able to visit. Find out more
For those of you further afield, over the next few months I'll share details of some of the works selected and their significance to me. Keep an eye on my Instagram and Facebook pages for updates.
A Printmaker's Journey runs from 11 March – 30 April 2017 at The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre then tours until early November 2017. Find out more
Angie Lewin 'Sollas Sands' linocut, 2015
Edward Bawden 'The Road to Thaxted' linocut, 1956
Lizzie Farey 'Almost Spring' woven willow, 2017
(photograph by Shannon Tofts)
Eric Ravilious King Edward VIII Coronation Mug, 1937 (originally designed in 1936)
Angie Lewin 'Festival Mug' lithograph
Emily Sutton 'Olive Cook's Settle' watercolour, 2013
Edward Bawden 'Church and Dove' wallpaper, 1925
Barnett Freedman
I'm currently curating an exhibition which will open at Winchester Discovery Centre on Saturday 11th March 2017. A Printmaker's Journey will then tour Hampshire until the end of November.
The exhibition will include work selected from a wide range of disciplines and periods which have in some way influenced my work as a printmaker and designer. Paintings, textiles, prints, posters and ceramics by artists and designers including Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Alan Reynolds and Paul Morrison will be displayed alongside examples of my own work.
Full details of the exhibition will be announced soon - do subscribe to my newsletter if you'd like to find out more.
I'll be including two works by artist and illustrator Barnett Freedman, a contemporary of Bawden and Ravilious.
Over at Spitalfields Life, author David Buckman takes a look at the work of this prolific artist and illustrator...
"Barnett Freedman is among my top candidates for a blue plaque, as one of the most distinguished British artists to emerge from the East End. There was a 2006 campaign to get him one in at 25 Stanhope St, off the Euston Rd, where he lived early in his career, but English Heritage rejected him, along with four others as of “insufficient stature or historical significance” – an unjust decision exposed by the Camden New Journal. The artist and Camden resident David Gentleman was one among many who supported the plaque, writing “He was a very good and original artist whose work deserves to be remembered. He influenced me in the sense of his meticulous workmanship. He was a real master of it.” Read David Buckman's article in full
A portrait of Barnett Freedman
Advertisement for Shell, 1951.
Barnett Freedman’s ‘Claudia’ typeface.
Lithographs for ‘Oliver Twist,’ published by the Heritage Press in New York, 1939.
Barnett Freedman works courtesy Special Collections, Manchester Metropolitan University
Camera Ready 1983
Matthew Rich, Master Printer at Jealous has just created Camera Ready 1983, a new nine colour screen print which painstakingly recreates a piece of rediscovered artwork from Matthew's time printing fly posters in Manchester for Factory Records and their Haçienda club. Matthew explains...
"I started screen printing in the early nineteen eighties at a Manchester print shop called Community Expression. I printed posters, stickers and t-shirts for local bands and clubs, political groups and the students' union. Our first premises was in a university building on Oxford Road and then I can remember 3 or 4 more places before we moved to a bigger shop called Lola Publicity on Claremont Road in Moss Side.
I joined forces with the Manchester fly posting crew so as well as being poster printers for the Manchester music scene, we would pick up record company posters sent from London to the Piccadilly station Red Star depot. We would (not entirely legally) paste them all over town, sometimes travelling as far afield as Sheffield and Leeds. Continues below...
We had a good relationship with local promoter Alan Wise, making posters for his acts the Fall, The Blue Orchids and Nico for the brief time she lived and worked in Manchester. But most of our work came from Factory Records, firstly making fly posters for the original Factory club (AKA the Russell or PSV Club) in Hulme and then, from 1982 onwards, gig posters for the brand new Fac 51, The Haçienda.
Arriving at the club with a roll of freshly screen printed posters guaranteed free entry, strolling smugly past the queues and some cash in hand to spend at the bar. There were many memorable nights like Einsturzende Neubauten attacking the pillars holding up the roof with a jack hammer, Madonna's first ever show in the UK and William Burroughs on stage reading from his new book, 'The Place of Dead Roads'. Continues below...
Back in the printshop we set out the poster artwork with Letraset, Rubylith and Rotring pens. Shot negatives onto Lith film using a huge horizontal process camera - all brass hinges and ground glass screens - and hand printed onto MG poster paper with very smelly old solvent based inks. No health and safety back in the eighties!
Many many years later I found this bit of poster artwork in a box in the attic. So many people of a certain age remember that era of the Manchester music scene with such fondness and a few suggested I do something with my bits and pieces of memorabilia. Continues below...
I scanned the ancient artwork and dissected it layer by layer. The ageing off-white card of the artwork sheet. The palest blue lines (invisible to the camera) of the layout grid, some scribbled notes in pencil, a bit of Tippex covering a mistake and the matt black of the Letraset itself. We definitely ran out of letter Ys but that's fine, make a negative and print off as many new ones as you need.
There's a story here of my journey in screen printing from knocking out one colour posters on the cheapest stock to this nine colour, limited edition print in expensive Swiss water based inks on 100% cotton mould-made Somerset paper."
Find out more about Camera Ready 1983 over at Jealous Prints.
